Global Health Team from Osler Health System, Canada completes fifth tour to DMCH: Focus on Diabetes Care

Ludhiana, September 18, 2019: A nine member delegation from William Osler Health System, Ontario, Canada completed a four day visit to DMCH under the joint collaboration program between the two institutions. This is the fourth such visit by Team Osler at DMCH after an MOU was signed between the two institutions. The Vice President at Osler Kim Bellismo was welcomed by Prem Kumar Gupta, Secretary, Managing Society and Dr.Sandeep Puri, Principal at DMCH. Bellismo said that in this visit, the focus has been to enhance care of diabetic patients by improving patient education. This includes taking steps at community and social level to decrease the incidence of diabetes in the general population as well as taking good care of diabetic patients to prevent secondary complications. Dr Parminder Singh, Head of Endocrinology department at DMCH said that the tour has focused on the importance of patient education and role of dieticians and nursing support in effective management of diabetic patients. Dr Singh said that their department will be integrating patient education in its outpatient services. This would be provided by specially trained educators who will teach the patients about healthy dietary practices, monitoring of glucose levels and other do’s and don’ts to avoid complications. Dr.Deepak Jain, Professor, Department of Orthopedics, DMC who is coordinating the visit said that Osler Health system caters to a large Indian population in Brampton, Canada and the challenges faced by the two institutions are similar and the two have a lot to learn from each other. The team visited satellite health centres run by DMCH at Pohir and Shimlapuri. Dr.Anurag Chaudhary, Head of Community Medicine said that the visiting team was impressed by quality and efficiency of care offered there. The team also conducted teaching sessions on diabetes for dieticians and nursing staff at DMCH as well as satellite centres. The visiting team toured the dietary department of DMCH and was impressed to see that fresh and nutritious diet without any processed food was being provided to the indoor patients. Prof.Naveen Mittal and Dr. Saurabh from department of Endocrinology said that both sides have learnt about new techniques and the knowledge exchange will definitely improve patient care. The visiting team consisted of Dr. Leili Pede, Dr.Elizabeth Powell, Dr. Faiz Daudi, Rashmi Ahuja Dietician, Babita Sandhu Diabetes educator, Hina Marsonia pharmacist, Nancy Wangui Social worker and Ashneet Singh Coordinator. In the last day of the visit, the team summed up their experience and gave a formal feedback and recommendations to their peers at DMCH. Dr.Puri said this feedback provides valuable insight to further improve our services and patient care. DMCH and Osler are also continuing the ‘Care Beyond Borders’ program for continued medical care of patients from Canada who visit India and require medical care. Under this program, patient record with the plan of care of patient from Canada is shared with doctors at DMCH before the patient visits India and medical care is coordinated between treating doctors at Osler and DMCH.